The Last Kefsen by Jardyn39
Chapter 5: Awake
Harry woke with a splitting headache. With a Herculean effort he kicked off his bedclothes. Every muscle in his body ached.
Harry pulled his legs out and propped himself on the edge of the bed. He stood, wobbled, and promptly sat down again.
Squinting, he reached out and grabbed his glasses from the side table. Putting them on he noticed the get-well cards. He was surprised how many there were and spent a few moments reading them, feeling touched at the messages. He spent quite a while pondering Hermione's card. It was one of the larger cards but even so, almost every blank area on the inside and the entire back of the card was covered with her neat, small handwriting. He decided he would read this properly later.
Harry took a couple of deep breaths and thought, "Okay, let's try again."
He gathered his thoughts and with a great effort he rose and staggered over to the window. Quite exhausted but non-the-less very pleased with himself, Harry threw open the curtains. He was immediately blinded by the bright light that streamed into the room.
Harry heard agitated clicking noises and turned back just in time to see golden brown arachnid legs disappear under the bedstead. Realising his error, Harry rapidly closed the curtains again. The darkness felt much more comfortable for his eyes too.
"Er, sorry about that," Harry said sheepishly. Looking around the room Harry realised he was in one of the bedrooms at Grimmauld Place. Harry tensed as he thought of the effort that would be needed to get back to the bed. After a moment he ventured back and was surprised to find his muscles loosen and his headache gradually lift.
Reaching the bed he knelt and lifted the bedclothes. Peering under he found Jen.
"Can I get you anything to eat? I think I'll go down to the kitchen to get something," said Harry and noticing that she was still trembling he continued, "Sorry about the curtains. I didn't think. Are you okay?"
Jen extended a leg and gently rested a foot on the top of Harry's hand. She immediately morphed into Hermione.
"That was a bit too bright for me," said Jen, breathing heavily.
Harry had become used to this transformation and no longer reacted at all when Jen changed form. Jen had only taken two forms so far. Apparently Jen regarded Harry's recollections of other female forms unsuitable and even "implausible". He hadn't pursued the matter.
"I'm feeling a little weak. I think I'll try to get some sleep," said Jen and removing her hand she changed back to her preferred arachnid form.
Harry gently replaced the bedclothes to block the light, and crossed the room to the door. Taking care not to make a noise so as to disturb Jen he opened the door, went through and closed it again gently.
Harry half turned away and then thinking that someone might disturb Jen, he locked the door and took the key. Harry smiled to himself as he realised he was more concerned for Jen's wellbeing than for someone else encountering Jen's monstrous form. He had become rather fond of Jen.
As he descended the stairs, he felt a small stab of pain in his side, but it was gone as soon as it came.
*
Entering the kitchen, Harry discovered it was early morning. The range was still warm and Harry realised that he must have company.
Harry got the kitchen fire going and set about making himself tea and breakfast.
Three-quarters of an hour later, Harry was sitting at the kitchen table draining his second cup of tea and was pondering whether to have another cup before or after he went back upstairs to wash and change.
Harry realised he was feeling much better now. Having Jen for company, even inside his own head, had been good for Harry. He still felt the loss and the guilt, but his feelings were much less raw. Harry found he had spoken more freely about Sirius than ever before. There was no point not to, since Jen had access to all his memories anyway.
Harry's mind wandered back to the room with his memories.
Jen had begun to share part of her history with Harry too. Quite a lot of it seemed to be a gory catalogue of her victims but Jen enjoyed telling of her adventures and Harry enjoyed how happy she seemed remembering a time before Grimmauld Place. Jen did not go into detail about how she came to be trapped inside Grimmauld Place and as Harry could tell this was a sensitive issue he avoided asking too many questions.
The boxes and files on the shelves were, Harry had to admit, not very organised at all.
They had spent a long time sorting through his memories. They would pull down the cardboard box files from the shelf one at a time. None of the files were labelled or dated but usually as soon as Harry held the box, long forgotten memories would flood back. They both seemed to share the experience.
Some boxes, usually the old and tatty looking ones, had to be opened before Harry would remember anything. Each contained some small memento that jogged Harry's memory when he saw it or sometimes after he had touched it. Some boxes had emitted sounds, smells or tastes as they were opened. Some pleasant, others not. The contents of a few boxes caused Harry deep embarrassment, and Jen would tease him and pretend to grab the box away from him. These boxes, Harry insisted, had to go on a high shelf, out of reach.
A few boxes Harry became very wary of and found he could not comfortably go near them. Jen knew these would include some of Harry's worst memories and had diplomatically decided that they were fine left where they were.
They found one group of shiny black new looking boxes, right up on the top shelf. These refused to be moved, so Harry had climbed up to take a closer look. Unlike the others, these boxes appeared to be completely sealed shut. All the other boxes had been open. When Harry touched them they were inert. No memories came. Nothing. Jen had wondered if it was a memory charm but had decided that it was more likely to be something he had repressed and had tried to forget.
Behind some shelves on one wall, Harry had found what looked like a door. It was black and there was no sign of a lock or handle. For some reason, Jen was very afraid of the door or whatever was behind it. She had begged him not to try and open it.
Harry's only disappointment was not finding any memories of his mother and father. Jen reasoned that he may have been too young to remember. Harry had agreed, but had still hoped to remember something.
By the time they had finished, the shelves looked much more organised. Harry didn't really believe any of this would do any good, after all, none of it was real.
The last thing he remembered was sitting in front of the fire - each with a box file, Jen firing History of Magic questions at him and Harry badly re-telling some of Ron's old jokes. Harry had been surprised how many dates and facts he thought he got right. Or was he just remembering the wrong answers?
Harry was disturbed from his reverie by Remus Lupin shuffling into the kitchen, yawning and stretching.
"Good morning," said Harry smiling, "cup of tea?"
Lupin stopped dead in his tracks, his eyes suddenly wide awake in shock and staring at Harry who was getting up from the table to make the tea.
"H... Harry?" he managed to stutter, clearly surprised to see Harry up and finally saying, "Morning. Er, how do you feel?"
"Much better thanks," replied Harry, his back turned while he re-filled the large teapot with boiling water. Turning back to Lupin he asked, "How are you?"
*
Harry and Lupin sat at the kitchen table and talked for a long time. It turned out that his holiday was almost at an end and he would be going back to school tomorrow, if he was fit enough. As he'd been ill he would travel by flue powder directly to the Gryffindor common room.
Lupin asked if Harry's "new friend" was awake too. Harry told Lupin what had happened and asked if he or Sirius had known she was here all this time. Lupin had no idea and was sure that Sirius hadn't either. Sirius had found the door to the corridor but had not investigated further.
Lupin told Harry that his version of events pretty much matched Albus Dumbledore's theory of what happened. It had been Dumbledore who had instructed that the acromantula be placed in the same bedroom after he had established that both of them were in the same coma.
Lupin had not seen any of the strange lights seen by Harry by the time he had arrived. Lupin was surprised to hear Harry's description of the energy that appeared to save him but did not speculate where it came from. Harry didn't mention the shadow Jen had seen.
Harry asked if they had heard about Harold from Privet Drive. Lupin's face grew serious.
"We have investigated Harold Smith's death thoroughly and as far as we can tell he died from natural causes."
Harry nodded silently.
"We didn't find out about him until your Aunt told us. She was very worried for you. We should have told her about Sirius and we should have given her a means to contact us sooner. I'm sorry, Harry. We just didn't think anything like this would happen. We thought we were helping by keeping our distance. Mrs. Figg kept intercepting your Aunt whenever she saw her but she didn't say anything to her."
Harry shrugged his shoulders. "How did she contact you?"
"Well, she first she tried writing to Hermione. She had written a return address on the Muggle letters she posted to you. Then she got a telephone number and tried calling. She left lots of messages on their answering machine but unfortunately the Grangers were away. Eventually she managed to persuade Hedwig to take a message."
"Wow!" Harry said quietly. "That must have taken some effort. She won't go near Hedwig usually and she wouldn't have known where to send the message. Who did she send it to?"
"Dumbledore, thankfully."
As they spoke Harry had a sudden mild panic attack. It must have shown on his face because Lupin asked, "What is it, Harry?"
"I need to get to Diagon Alley!"
"No, don't worry about your school supplies. I'm sure the Headmaster will understand if you start term without them, given the circumstances."
"Yes. No! It's not that. Hermione's birthday is in a few days time! I haven't even thought what to get her."
"She will understand."
That's not the point, Harry thought.
Lupin smiled gently. "I'll ask Dumbledore if I can take you to Diagon Alley next weekend. We can go by flue unless I can persuade him to give us a Portkey."
"Thanks," said Harry, feeling a little relieved.
"Oh, and Happy Birthday yourself, by the way."
"Oh, yeah. Thanks." He had completely forgotten his birthday.
"Ron insisted that your birthday should be rescheduled. I suspect your friends will want to celebrate when you get back to Hogwarts."